Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)
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Question 30: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if progress has been made on the commitment in the programme for Government to complete a national audit of local sports facilities around the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9170/05]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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An Agreed Programme for Government contains a commitment to complete a national audit of local sports facilities and put in place a long-term strategic plan to ensure the development of such necessary facilities throughout the country.

It is my intention to immediately establish an inter-agency steering group to begin work on the development of a sports facilities strategy and to oversee the commencement of the audit of sports facilities. The proposed strategy will aim to ensure that an agreed and integrated approach is adopted to planning, funding, provision and management of sports facilities by the current main funding bodies in this area.

It is envisaged that the audit of sports facilities will be an important part in developing such a strategic approach to future facility provision in terms of establishing the level of need that still exists in the sports sector and in helping to determine future priorities.

Given the large numbers of facilities to be included in such an audit, the proposed steering group will have to make critical decisions on the methodology to be used to record and classify the facilities to be included.

Once completed, the audit will enable policy makers to map the location of the various sports facilities throughout the country, leading to a more effective targeting of new or additional facilities which will complement rather than duplicate what is already available. In this way, a more efficient use of financial resources can be achieved and a fostering of greater co-operation between complementary facility providers can be encouraged.